Open Women's 9's preview: Raiders v Sharks

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The Canberra Raiders Women’s 9’s outfit will be out to cause an upset this Sunday when they travel to Sydney to take on the Cronulla Sharks at Southern Cross Group Stadium.

Having gone down to the Sharks 28-10 earlier in the year, Raiders coach, Sharleen Coomber, has encouraged her team to take risks in attack.

“Last time we were too predictable,” Coomber said. “At halftime the score was close but obviously the Sharks ran away with the game with their fitness. We’ve really worked on our ball skills since so hopefully that comes out this weekend.

“What let us down last time was our fitness. The Sharks had been training for three months while we had been training for two or three weeks.”

With regular captain Paremo Marsh injured, Gabrielle Suckling takes over the captaincy duties and is excited by message given out by her coach.

“We do have our set play but Sharleen said to go out there, have some fun and do what you think will secure the win,” Suckling said. “A lot of us girls have played a few times now so we can just throw the ball around and do our thing.”

With most of the squad being heavily involved in the Canberra Region Open Women’s Tackle Competition, the squad looks better prepared for Sunday’s match.

“We are going in with a little more confidence than the first time we played them because we’ve all been playing in our local competition,” Suckling said.

Speaking about the opportunity to lead the girls out onto Southern Cross Group Stadium, the 21 year old was thrilled with the chance.

“I’m very privileged, it’s only my second Raiders game and I get to lead them which is very exciting,” Suckling said. “They’ve all been so good and we all get around each other so it’s going to be easy with the bunch of girls that we’ve got.”

The game kicks off at 2:45pm this Sunday at Southern Cross Group Stadium.